Tom King’s CRM Plus --
Ruminations on "cultural resource management," environmental impact assessment, and related esoteric topics, by a curmudgeon who seldom has anything good to say about anything.

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Thursday, November 24, 2016

RE-ANNOUNCING: THE HERITAGE AFTER TRUMP AWARD

Back on
November 11, I announced creation of the “Heritage After Trump” award. Two
weeks having passed, and a few loose ends having been gathered together, I want
to post about it again and encourage everyone who’s interested to consider
competing for the US$1,000.00 award.

Below is what
I said on November 11.

Suppose
that the Trump/Pence administration is successful in doing away with U.S.
environmental impact assessment laws and regulations, including the National
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the National Historic Preservation Act
(NHPA). We have no more environmental assessments or impact statements, no more
Section 106 review, no more State or Tribal Historic Preservation Officers, no
more Advisory Council on Historic Preservation or National Register of Historic
Places. Of course, this probably isn’t what the TrumpPencers will do – instead
they’ll just bully the government’s employees into making the laws meaningless
– but for simplicity’s sake suppose everything gets swept away.

Suppose
further that the voters turn the rascals out after a few years, and we are in a
position to rebuild a national program of cultural heritage impact assessment
and management. What should we
do?

For
reasons that I’ve discussed in more books and journal articles than anybody
cares to recall, I don’t think we ought just to put the “old” systems back in
place. We ought to recognize that those systems have deficiencies, some of
which actually make them more vulnerable than they need be to attack by
Trump-types, while some simply make them not very helpful in protecting the
aspects of the environment to which people attach cultural value.

So,
I’m offering a thousand bucks (US$1,000) to the person,
consortium, group, organization, gang, or crowd that produces the best written
description of the cultural heritage program the United States should put in
place once the Trump phenomenon has run its course.

“Best”
means that the program is:

· Inclusive both
in terms of the tangible and intangible environmental variables it addresses
and the people, communities, and groups whose values are addressed;

· Minimally
bureaucratic – not relying more than absolutely necessary on
government oversight bodies and documentation;

· Consultative –
involving open but results-oriented dialogue among participants;

· Simple enough
to make it accessible to and usable by ordinary citizens;

· Open to
use by and for all kinds of citizens;

· Just
and equitable in its treatment of people, other life-forms, and
communities;

· Reasonable in
terms of time and financial costs imposed on all involved; and

· Balanced in
relation to other needs, values, and priorities.

Describe
your proposed program in ten typewritten pages or fewer, and send it as an
attachment to email to TomKing106@Gmail.com.

Proposals will be judged by a small
team of knowledgeable people that I’m currently assembling, and the award will
be announced and made on inauguration day, January 20th, 2017.

That remains
the description of the competition. I’ve now assembled a small group of experts
– none of them members of the existing historic preservation, environmental
impact assessment, or “cultural resource” establishment, and all thoughtful,
wise people – to help me judge entries and select a winner. Should there not be
a winner, the thousand bucks will go to a charity selected by the judges. To
safeguard their privacy, I’m not going to reveal the names of the judges.

Based on what
I’ve seen so far being bandied about on Facebook by people thinking about the
prize, I think I need to stress that you should NOT think of existing
institutions as immutable or necessary. About the only thing I can think of
that’s good about The Trumpeting is that it may blow away a lot of stuff that’s
impeded our having a world-class cultural heritage program. Among the stuff
that may get blown away, for good or ill, are the State and Tribal Historic
Preservation Officers, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, the
Section 106 process, the Council on Environmental Quality and its regulations,
large chunks of the Environmental Protection Agency, and hunks of the National
Park Service. I suggest that you not assume any of these to be necessary parts
of your imagined heritage program. Think outside the box.

The deadline
for submissions – to give the judges time to cogitate on and discuss them, is January 1st, 2017. So you have a month and change; good
thinking!

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Welcome to Tom King's CRM Plus

Welcome to my blog on topics related to "cultural resource management," whatever that may mean to you or me. I hope you find some interest in what you read here, that you'll add your own contributions, and that you'll encourage others to have a look. Thanks!

About Me

Thomas F. King holds a PhD in anthropology from the University of California Riverside (1976), and has worked since the 1960s in the evolving fields of research and management variously referred to as heritage, cultural resource management, and historic preservation. He is particularly known for his work with Section 106 of the U.S. National Historic Preservation Act, and with indigenous and other traditional cultural places.

King is the author and editor of ten textbooks and tradebooks (See http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-F.-King/e/B001IU2RWK/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1353864454&sr=1-2-ent) as well as scores of journal articles, popular articles, and internet offerings on heritage topics.His career includes the conduct of archaeological research in California and the Micronesian islands, management of academy-based and private cultural resource consulting organizations, helping establish government historic preservation systems in the freely associated states of Micronesia, oversight of U.S. government project review for the federal government’s Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, service as a litigant and expert witness in heritage-related lawsuits, and extensive work as a consultant and educator in heritage-related topics. He is the co-author of the U.S. National Park Service's government-wide guidance on "traditional cultural properties" (TCPs; see http://www.nps.gov/nr/publications/bulletins/pdfs/nrb38.pdf). He occasionally teaches short classes about historic preservation project review, traditional cultural places, and consultation with indigenous groups, and consults and writes as TFKing PhD LLC. Current major clients include several American Indian tribes and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.